My name is Julia Sidley, I was born in October of 2002 in Sacramento California. I am currently a junior at West Campus High School. I am extremely dedicated to my academics however my high school career has been characterized by my role in the Film and Debate programs at my school.

The West Campus Video Production program has played a very large role in my life these past three years. I established the program my freshman year and it has continued to grow as a program and became a family. I worked with my close friends and we were able to get grants and turn our club into a family.

Finally but probably most notably I am a policy debater. The policy debate community has shaped me in ways beyond words. If I am not at school, editing, or filming I am probably in a coffee shop somewhere with my teammates reading dozens of books and law review articles about anything ranging from the philosophy of Agamben, Foucault, and Baudrillard to specific policies and current events. I have learned more as a part of this community than I have from any other group of people. Because I am a part of this community, I better understand how the world functions around me and I cannot wait to continue learning and growing with them.

In conclusion, my passions for research and communication are wholly representative of my goals in life; to educate myself as best I can and share what I have learned with those around me. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have been provided at AccessLocal.tv and I cannot wait to share what I can create.

A report published by FamiliesUSA titled “A Case for Solidarity: Common Challenges Involving Health and Health Care in the United States” found an increased risk of poor health among many minority groups and that problems with health status and health care tend to affect people of color much more than white people.

The report states that among residents of rural areas, serious health problems are much more common than they would be to residents of urban areas. It follows up with, “While residents of rural areas are 2 percentage points more likely than urban residents to go without care because of cost, race and ethnicity have a much stronger association with this measure of financial access barriers. African-Americans are 6 percentage points more likely and Latinos 9.8 percentage points more likely than whites to avoid going to the doctor because of cost.” This shows a clear correlation between ethnicity, race, and class to more issues involving health care.

The report also found that working-class women, regardless of race, are more likely to experience serious health issues and to experience financial problems when trying to deal with health care. They found that in 2011 – 2013, working-class women were 3.5 times more likely to deal with poor physical and mental health than a college educated man would. In 1999 – 2001, the percentage of working-class women who spent at least 2 weeks in poor physical health was 12.6%. By the year 2013, that percentage grew to 16.7% while the percentage of poor mental health grew from 15.1% to 19.1 %. That’s about 1 in 5 working class women while the same was only true for about 1 in 18 college educated men.

On a financial level, the report speaks about working-class women struggling with this, stating “ …working-class women also suffer serious disadvantages involving financial access to care. In 2011-2013, working-class women were more than three times as likely to go without doctor visits because of cost as were college-educated men. Fully 27.7 percent of working-class women—more than 1 in 4— encountered this financial barrier. The same was true for only 7.8 percent of college-educated men, or fewer than 1 in 12.”

Regardless of race, class, gender, or location, any of us can encounter serious health problems. Even though people of color have more of a risk of encountering these problems, white people make up the majority of people affected. This is because white people make up the majority of U.S. residents, for example, more than 70% of residents in rural areas who encounter financial problems with health care are white since they make up most of rural residential areas. The report was made to show that we need to improve access to health care and that we need to start helping families in need regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender.

On Friday, October 26th, Mayor Darrell Steinberg answered questions about Measure U, a tax plan will renew the same tax instituted in 2012 as well as adding an additional half-cent, creating a one-cent tax.

It was an opportunity for the community, especially South Sacramento Youth, to voice their opinions and ask questions about the proposed tax. Mayor Steinberg, as a vocal supporter of Measure U, focused on the benefits of this proposal.

“Measure U is a once in a generation opportunity to invest in Sacramento’s future, I believe this city has unlimited potential to grow in the right way and to extend the benefits of our growth to all of our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Steinberg.

However, many people who are on a fixed income don’t agree. Some argue that it will burden the poor and homeless who have to pay a higher tax to give up some of their necessities that they need to survive.

“We currently don’t have the financial capacity to invest in high wage jobs creation and affordable housing, and a sustained effort to reduce homelessness and in our young people, Measure U will give us the opportunity to do all of that,” Mayor Steinberg stated.

Mayor Steinberg claims Measure U will fix all the problems that it’s opponents say it creates. It’s also important to remember as well that Measure U is a general tax, and one doesn’t really have specifics as to what it will do as a specific tax needs a 2/3 vote to pass.

So what will you do? No matter what your side is on this issue, it’s important to go out and vote!

Recently, the New York Times published an article speaking on the situation of transgender and gender non-conforming erasure. The article said that “The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law.”

Many transgender and gender non-conforming people feel as though they are already harassed by people around them and are now are being targeted by the government. Although transgender, gender non-conforming and allies are taking to the streets, the biggest location that need people to be to make change is at the voting polls.

In California and other progressive states, there has been a big push for voting the people who are hurting minorities out of office. Through Instagram, libraries, celebrities and more, people over the age of eighteen have been urged to register to vote and to show up the polls on November 6th. Not only have people eighteen and older been told to register, but people sixteen and younger have been urged to pre-register, so that as soon as they are eighteen, they can vote.

Many people have noticed the lack of representation in elected office of the people being affected by these changes. There are not many transgender and gender non-conforming candidates running in elections. People often feel as though it is because of fear of bigots that they do not run. Arabesque Lynaolu, a student and activist, finds this to be truly troubling.

“I feel that if transgender or non-conforming candidates were to run, that they would have to be careful, but I do think that it is important for them to run because it would give visibility.”

A study published earlier this year by JAMA Pediatrics titled “Dose-Dependent Associations Between Sleep Duration and Unsafe Behaviors Among US High School Students” found that teenagers who aren’t getting a minimum of eight hours of sleep at night are being affected much more negatively than we thought. JAMA Pediatrics collected data from about 67,000 high school students over the course of eight years. About 70% of the students questioned in the study stated that they slept less than six hours a night while only about 30% said that they slept for more than that. They found that most of the students that participated in the study slept for less than six hours each night and were reported to be twice as likely to use substances like alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana compared to other students. They also found strong correlations between lack of sleep and violent behavior as well as self harm even saying that students who slept less than six hours were three times more likely to consider suicide.

“I only get about five to six hours of sleep every night,” said local high school senior Mac Boyle. “I always feel overwhelmed with college applications, school work, and social media. They’re all constant stressors. In today’s climate, you see lots of teens turning to drug use to feel something, it’s a difficult time we live in with lots of polarizing viewpoints and complex issues. I personally feel that instead of making it harder for teens to get into drugs we need to target the reasons teens are turning to drugs. Drugs are used to feel happy and there’s an overwhelming amount of teens being diagnosed with depression so I think that there’s a deeper underlying issue with our society.”

The problem of lack of sleep in teens isn’t something that can be solved easily, even if you try to establish a healthy sleep pattern you usually come back to the unhealthy pattern. This is something seen a lot because things like family, work, or school force these patterns to change.

“Sometimes, I’ll get four hours of sleep in a row, “ said Sacramento teenager Stephen Regalia. “Basically, whenever I’m losing sleep, I have problems with a class, taking care of my mental health, or I’m getting buried underneath a tidal wave of homework. All that does is make it that much harder for me to succeed.”

Lack of sleep in teenagers is incredibly dangerous for this generation. It’s opening a path of mental health issues for teenagers including alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicidal thoughts. The lead author of the study, Matthew Weaver, said: “They are the leading causes of death among teens and have important implications for the health and safety of high school students nationally.” Something needs to be done about this in our society, something needs to be pinpointed so we can fix this issue.

On Saturday, October 13th, the 39th annual Take Back The Night rally and march took place. Not only were there resources and performers, but hundreds of event-goers took to the streets to “take back the night”.